Effect of Anthropogenic Activities on Nesting Ecology of Colonial Seabirds: A Conservative Implication
摘要
Anthropogenic activities have profound impact on terrestrial, marine and freshwater ecosystems worldwide. Among these, seabirds are considered the most conspicuous in the marine ecosystems. In addition, they are highly sensitive birds due to their late ages at first breeding with lower reproductive output making them vulnerable to threats with slow recovery rates. Therefore, the present chapter was planned to elaborate different anthropogenic activities such as tourism, anthropogenic nesting materials, environment pollution, artificial night lightening, anthropogenic noise, ground and aerial-based surveys, which can affect nesting ecology of colonial seabirds. In addition, the impact of human activities on seabirds depends on their species, age, diet, life history, gender and overall health. Furthermore, different human disturbances can cause physiological, behavioural and developmental alterations and sometimes even death. The chapter ultimately underscores the importance of collaborative approach across policy, industry and society to conserve seabird species by developing and implementing laws to conserve their habitat, control human disturbance, revegetation of indigenous plants used by them for nesting materials and removal of debris from their nesting sites.